The Child Within
by XxsleepycatxX
Summary: When a mysterious man in the shadows drugs both Itachi and his partner, Kisame, with a "special" Ingredient in order to steal the Sharingan, the results leave the two criminals in a very.. awkward situation. Now, Itachi and Kisame must figure a way to escape the villain's clutches before it's too late! No Yaoi! Kid Itachi and Kid Kisame friendship!
1. Chapter 1

**SleepyCat: I've been writing a story about Minato as of this moment, but then I thought, "Hey, I'll start one about Itachi and Kisame! I've always wanted to do a story about their adorable friendship. NO ROMANCE BETWEEN THE TWO! **

**I'm rating it T because...well, BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE IT. Jeez...**

**Anywho, I'm hoping to make this story more than 20 chapters, though it could change. **

**Readers, don't feel shy to review! I need reviews to tell me how I'm doing, what I should change, or if I'm just plain stupid. **

**Main Characters: Itachi and Kisame**

**Disclaimer: Come on, really? Do I have to do this everytime? Nothing has changed since last time! -grumbles-...Fine! Naruto and it's wonderful characters do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT belong to me! Happy?**

**Here we go!**

**~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~~-~~-~~~-~-~-~-~ **_Chapter 1: Two S-rank criminals and a Tea House_

Round, shiny, and very small. It was a silver coin that seemingly had drawn all his attention; he would twist and turn the coin in his pale fingers, examining it from back to front. The man had been waiting for so long that the coin actually appeared to give him some interest; there was nothing else to do in this dark, stink-hole of a cave.

He was waiting patiently, but his patience was growing thin as his boredom was increasing. He had a schedule to follow and a plan to follow through with. Of course, He needed one more piece of information to kick off the plan, or else, everything would go to waste. He was waiting for at least one of his men to report that important information soon. They would not, could not, fail me now; they knew the consequences if they did.

However, it wasn't much longer till one his subordinates appeared before him, obviously brimming with new information. 'Guess I won't be killing anyone this time for failing me,' he slightly chuckled thinking about the last time his men had failed him; half of them...well, let's just say that there wasn't enough left of them to identify who was who.

His subordinate, who was also the leader's captain, bowed before him , waiting for permission to speak.

In a calm and deep voice, the leader asked, "Have you located them yet?"

"Yes, master," the new-comer. He took his cue to rise and grab a scroll from his pack. The captain then placed the scroll, which appeared to be a map, on the table, pointing to one of the lines that represented roads. "It appears that they are traveling on the East road; most likely they will stop by a tea house two miles up. Do you wish to begin the plan, sir?"

"Yes, send your man, the one we picked out for this job, to carry out the job. He remembers everything, correct?"

The captain nodded. "He is fully prepared."

"Good," the leader replied, "then go and carry my orders precisely. This must be done with caution and the utmost care. Do not fail me."

"Hai," the captain quickly replied and then left without another word.

The leader, who was once again alone and playing with his coin, chuckled to himself.

'Soon, your eyes... will be mine!'

"Curse that leader of ours! Leave it to him to order us to catch some S-rank missing nin with a large bounty in the land of Earth while we were in the land of Water. I hate long trips."

"Hn, you forget, Kisame; Kakuzu, as treasurer of the organization, was the one who ordered us to take care of the bounty."

"Well, curse him too."

The two men, one with raven hair and dark eyes and the other with blue skin, features of a shark, and blue hair, walked through miles of forest on a dusty brown road. No one knew where they were going or what was the reason to travel so far; no one bothered, or were too scared, to ask. They were just two guys with odd-looking cloaks, walking on the road together. Of course, they were more than just two random fellows who happened to be walking the same direction.

Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame, two S-rank criminals, missing-nins from their villages, and partners-in-crime, had been sent on a retrieval mission of a bounty by their group called the Akatsuki. The Akatsuki, with nine of the most powerful criminals the shinobi world had to offer, was a destructive and vile organization but, nevertheless, an organization; therefore, it was important that the funds behind the Akatsuki would not fall behind.

With all the other members busy with jinchuuriki hunting, Itachi and Kisame were left to catch a high-priced missing-nin that had escaped into the land of Earth. To which, Kisame, the monster of the Hidden Mist, was not too pleased about. He was definitely thrilled for a fight but the trip there was unbearable for the shark-man; the hot weather was just making it worst, forcing Kisame to feel like a fish out of water.

"I don't get it," Kisame began. "If Kakuzu's in charge of the money, he should go himself to retrieve the bounties. You and I are better at hunting Jinchuuriki than Kakuzu and his partner, Hidan. Wouldn't you agree, Itachi-kun?"

"Hn," Itachi was all he said, but Kisame was able to notice him flinching at the addition of -kun. 'I've forgotten how much calling him Itachi-kun irritates him, hehe. I do, on some occasions, enjoy getting under his skin' thought Kisame as his toothy grin grew. Hoping to get the silent Itachi more involved in the present conversation, Kisame continued,

"Well, then again, I guess it's safer for us to go instead of Kakuzu and Hidan; the distance would have definitely ticked off Hidan. Then, Hidan would start to complain and push his partner over the edge as usual, and then, Kakuzu would probably tear Hidan's head off and mount it on a spike. However, that usually happens on every mission they go on; both are ticking time-bombs waiting to go off. Kinda makes you glad we got stuck with each other instead of those two, eh Itachi-kun?"

Itachi glared back at his partner, although not with a threatening stare. It was more of a human look, as Kisame would put it, even though Itachi was, at most times, less than human.

"You talk too much."

"Haha! You talk too little, Itachi-kun! You should lighten up!" Kisame laughed out loud.

"Hn."

'We're such an odd pair. Maybe not as odd as Hidan and Kakuzu, but still..' Kisame thought.

Kisame decided it was best to remain quiet at that moment, and let Itachi have his moment of peace and silence. Of course, Kisame was restless; he wanted a fight, then and now. However, there was nothing he could do except walk along the road next to his partner, who was always too quiet for his own good.

All in all, the trip was boring.

Kisame tried to look for something that he could focus his interest on and do something about his boredom, and through his searching, he spotted a small building far up the road. There was a thick stream of smoke coming from that direction, and Kisame squinted his eyes to get a better look at the upcoming building which appeared to be...

"Hey, hey, Itachi-kun! There's a tea house up the road. I'm worn out just like this dirt road; I say we take a small stop for just a bit, even ol' Samehada is begging for a break. The target doesn't know about us coming after him, so there's no need to rush or anything. Come on, Itachi-kun, or are you too tough to take break, hehe," Kisame asked with big, slightly scary-looking, smile.

Itachi only sighed. Kisame, of course, took that as a yes and walked quickly to the tea house. Itachi followed as well, but in the same pace.

The two partners settled in the tea house, while taking a nice breather; even Itachi seemed to enjoy a break from walking.

"Two cups of tea and two plates of dango! Make it snappy!" Kisame yelled at the owner. He was tired, impatient, and most of all, hungry.

The owner, who had a sugegasa that covered most of his face, rushed out to the two travelers with the order: two hot, steaming cups of tea with two plates of delicious-looking dishes of dango. Kisame, without another thought, viciously ate the dango in one bite before gulping down every drop of tea the cup contained.

His partner, however...

Itachi looked at his tea suspiciously, as if he was in a stare down with the drink. 'Something's wrong. I'm not sure why, but there's something bothering me,' thought Itachi, 'maybe I'm right or maybe I'm thinking too much about it. I don't sense or smell anything in tea, so I guess it's just me being paranoid.'

Realizing he was getting too worked up about tea, Itachi began to drink the tea in a more moderate fashion than that of his partner; the tea was, indeed, reviving and slightly thankful that Kisame had pointed out this tea house.

Concerning the tea, Itachi wanted to say the same about his partner, but...

_-**Thud-**_

Shockingly, the raven-haired shinobi turned to see his partner, unconscious on the ground and barely breathing. Itachi attempted to jump up in defense mode for the worst to come but felt a sudden dizziness overcome him.

'W-What's going on? I'm turning warm, and my head is spinning. My body is going numb?'

My thoughts were drawn back to the cup of tea in my hand and realized...

"We've been drugged," Itachi told himself as he tried to support himself by the nearest wall of the tea house. However, his hand slipped, and he landed hard on the ground next to Kisame. With his remaining strength, he looked up to see the owner of the tea house with sinister smirk stretched on his face.

"H-how?" Itachi gasped.

The owner bent over closely to the barely-awake Itachi and whispered, "A special ingredient I created that cannot be detected by any of the five senses; even your sharingan would not be able to see this trap, Uchiha Itachi. I look forward to seeing the results of my powerful creation. But in the meantime..

You two are coming with me."

Finally giving out, Itachi closed his eyes and was overwhelmed by a world of blackness...

~-~-~~~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**End of Chapter 1**

**SleepyCat: What results is this guy talking about? What does this mysterious guy want with these two criminals? What's going to happen next?! ITACHI LIKES DANGO? PANIC**

**Anyway, second chapter will up soon, so stay tuned, my friends!**


	2. Honey! I Shrunk the Ninja!

**SleepyCat: Hello, my fine readers! I hope you enjoyed the last chapter...maybe I should do a recap..**

**Previously in Chapter 1: A mysterious man with plans unknown has his eyes on a certain pair of shinobi, Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame, who travel to the Land of Earth with mission of retrieving a bounty. They make a quick stop at a nearby tea house to rest; surprisingly, the owner is a subordinate under the mysterious man. The cups of tea ordered for the partners are drugged, and Itachi and Kisame are both kidnapped. **

**Let me clear up a few things from last chapter:**

**-Sugegasa: it's the typical straw hat that has a circular base and a point at top. Looks like /_\ **

**-Samehada: That's...that's a big sword. Not really sure how else to describe it, haha!**

**The time setting of this story takes place after the death and revival of Gaara when the Jinchuuriki hunt starts picking up. I'm taking a guess that Itachi would be around 20 years old and Kisame is 31 years old. 11 years difference between the two.**

**Disclaimer: NOT MINE!**

**Let's Go!**

**~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Chapter 2: Honey, I shrunk the Ninja!**

**-Itachi's POV-**

Blackness. I was surrounded by blackness; my mind was swimming in an ocean of nothing. There wasn't a thing I could see. Had my eyes caught up to me, and now, I was finally blind? No, it can't be that; it's too soon for my eyes to go out. Then...

What happened to me...

Mission...Bounty...Tea House...Kisame passing out...drugged...darkness...

Drugged by...owner...taken...

I was slowly piecing together the situation me and partner could possibly be in.

We've been captured...

Realizing I was most likely correct, I forced my eyes, as tough as it was, to open. The first thing I saw was dark gray ceiling that had cracks in several places; apparently, I was laying on my back. I looked to my right to see a big chain attached from the wall to my wrist; my ankles had also been chained. Looking to my right, I saw my other wrist chained, noticing how secured I was to the wall; however, I didn't sense any chakra from the restraints. Maybe whoever captured us was too stupid enough to use Chakra-repressing; escape might be easier than I thought.

I then began to scan my surroundings. I was in a large cell with a plastic wall instead bars to hold us in; the cell contained a small table, that was near me, with two small empty cups and a jug of water. There were gray-colored walls,a black floor, a Blue skinned body...

A body...blue-skinned

Kisame...

I slowly sat up to get a better view of my partner. He was still unconscious; his Samehada had been taken away. He was also wearing different clothes: black pants with a long sleeve shirt. Of course, that wasn't the odd thing about him; the odd thing was that he looked many inches shorter. Maybe many was putting it lightly...

I grabbed one of the empty cups next to me and chucked it at the Shark-man in hopes of waking him up; the cup hit him square in the face, to which Kisame slightly flinched. I realized I was getting to him, so I grabbed the next cup and did same thing with the same result.

Kisame slowly forced his own eyes to take peek; he spotted myself calmly sitting across from him. He suddenly jerked up, as if he was given an injection of energy; he was slightly panicking, again putting it lightly. He tried to crawl away, but his own chains restrained him from moving anywhere but his present spot.

"Kisame, calm down. I'm not sure what's going on, but if we calm ourselves then-"

"Hehehe.."

I'm not sure why Kisame was suddenly chuckling, especially after having a panic attack, but I had a bad feeling about this.

"I don't see what's so funny, Kisame, about-"

….

...

..

.

My voice. Something was wrong with my voice...It was...too high?, "My voice..What's wrong with my voice?"

My deep voice had changed into that of a kid.. It was...sickening..

Kisame, however, was enjoying this way too much, despite the fact we were both chained to wall. I glared at him, hoping he would stop chuckling at a something that was not at all funny.

"Kisame, stop giggling like a child. This is serious!"

Kisame only giggled more and spoke in a teasing way, "You sound so funny, Itachi-kun! You, the most powerful criminal from the Leaf, with same voice as a 8 year old child! This is too good! I can't believe that...that...

...wait...

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH MY VOICE? I SOUND LIKE AN 8 YEAR OLD KID TOO!"

Kisame's face of amusement had quickly turned into a fit of rage; he had always taken pride of his manly voice. And now...

"Curse whoever did this to us! I wanna find and rip him to shreds! Curse Kakuzu for putting us on this mission! Curse our leader for making Kakuzu our treasurer! Curse Everyone!

I actually allowed a small smirk on my face; I must admit, it's not everyday you get to hear the monster of the Hidden Mist scream in a child's voice. However, I knew I needed to calm Kisame down somehow.

"Kisame, you need to calm youself down," I calmly insisted.

"I can't calm down, Itachi. We sound like brats, and well, we might as well be brats if we're-"

"Wait."

I was getting an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach when I realized the possibility that..that..

"Kisame, try to stand up."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

Kisame, who was obviously still sore from being drugged, slowly and painfully got up, although the chains weren't helping a bit. When I got a good view of my partner, I looked back at myself..then back at him...then myself...him...myself...

Sadly, my fears were confirmed; we were both seemingly a lot shorter than our previous selves, which could only mean...

"Kisame, don't freak out, but...I think we've been transformed... into our younger selves."

"Younger selves?"

"We're kids again, Kisame. We are kids..."

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~~-~-~-~~-~-~-~-~- _Meanwhile..._

"Gaijin, your retrieval mission was a success; however, your results are...quite disappointing."

A man, who was also known as Gaijin, remained still, kneeling before his leader; he was sweating, due to the anger he could sense from his leader. In his hand, he held a container filled with a brown liquid, which he was squeezing tightly. The drug he had created had produced the ideal results he wanted... well almost...

"Leader-sama, I-"

"I don't want excuses! Your science experiment has ruined my plans entirely. The drug was to make the targets vulnerable by changing them into children, physically and mentally, which it did, but it should have only lowered their chakra levels, which did not happen. All their chakra, their skills, and special abilities as ninja have been wiped clean. Even the Sharingan is no longer in the Uchiha's possession! Now we've got two criminal kids in our cell who are absolutely useless!"

"But Leader-sama-"

Gaijin was interrupted when his leader grabbed him by the neck and rammed him into the wall with an intent of taking his subordinate's life. His eyes were filled with hatred, murder, and rage, and that only meant one thing: destruction. The trapped man gasped for air as he attempted to get a few words out of his choking throat.

"Lea...der, t-there's...another...solution...the sharingan...is...n-not lost."

Interested in what Gaijin had to say, the leader calmed down and let go of the man. Tapping his foot impatiently, the leader glared at Gaijin to give him whatever valuable information he had.

Gaijin, who was rubbing his throat carefully, rose up to the leaders level and said, "I realize that the results were not what we expected; however, I knew there was a possibility that this could happen."

"And this is helpful why?"

"That's why I built a safety," the destructive look in the leader's eyes had disappeared, even more interested in what his soldier had to say. "A safety in case our targets' abilities were gone completely. In a matter of days, most likely a week and a half, they will gain all their abilities, although I do not know how long they will stay as kids, which is none of our concern. All we have to do is keep them here till they gain their abilities back.

"Hm," the leader began, "what are the current restraints they are in?"

"Normal ones. There's no need for Chakra- repressing chains; at least, not yet. In a couple of days, they will be changed to better ones. All we have to do... is wait.."

The leader sighed. 'I guess it will be worth waiting a couple days before I get my hands on the Sharingan.' he thought.

Suddenly, he began to laugh out loud; he almost forgot about the two brats he had in his possession. He was pretty amused at the thought of two powerful S-rank criminals as kids.

"Imagine what they are doing right now. They're probably cowering in fear, flooding the cell with tears, and crying for their mothers, Ha! I can't wait to see their faces!"

Then there was a scream...

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ _Meanwhile, in the cell._

I think my ears have gone deaf, for I swear, Kisame just screamed louder than any baby on the planet. He was taking our 'discovery' not as well as I had hoped. I don't blame him though; who would want to be a helpless child again?

"THIS IS EMBARRASSING! OUTRAGIOUS! TERRIBLE!"

"Kisame..."

"WHAT THE HECK? WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN TO US?! CURSE EVERYONE!"

"Kisame..."

"AND WHERE'S MY SAMEHADA? IF THEY SO MUCH AS TOUCH IT, I'LL RIP OUT THEIR HEARTS!

"Kis-"

"WHAT?!"

"...Shut up..."

"Why should I?!"

"Because we've got company."

Kisame had been yelling so much, that he didn't notice the old man standing outside our cell. The old man held a silver tray with what I assume to be our food; the man, who had been standing long enough to hear Kisame's panic attack, looked quite entertained by the funny scene.

"Heehee!"

"What are you laughing at, old man?!" growled Kisame.

"HeeHee, you two are as adorable as my grandkids; well, you, blue-boy, are little scarier, but adorable, nevertheless. Anyway, I have your dinners, hot and delicious, from yours truly."

The old man opened our cell door with a rusty silver key. Placing a plate next to each of us, the old man quickly shuffled out of the cell; however, hoping to get some information, I called out after the elder, "Old man!"

The man turned back to us; he was already outside the cell, looking at us through the plastic wall.

"Yes, son?"

"Where are we? What happened?"

"Oh well, I'm not allowed to say where this place is, and as for why your here, no one bothers to tell this old geezer anything. I'm not sure why that spunky leader wants two innocent-looking kids like you for. There's been a lot of kids like you two hanging around, but they always seem to disappear"

So, we're not the first...

"I hope you two don't disappear as well; I like you two, even though you're an odd bunch. Well, gotta rush, heehee!"

Then, the old man disappeared.

"Well that's great," Kisame complained, "the elder had nothing useful to tell. I guess no one trusts the cook around here. His span of knowledge of what's going on around here is so small that he believes we were already two random kids that were kidnapped, not drugged. Worthless old man."

"But he's such a wonderful cook, Hoshigaki Kisame. You should appreciate your elders more often."

Kisame and I turned to see another stranger, standing in front of our cell. He had a silver hood, so I couldn't make out his face, although I could observe that he was tall and muscular. But something else was off...something that was sending chills down my spine... I couldn't put my finger on it though...

"Are you the man drugged us because if you are, I'm going to rip you apart!" Kisame threatened.

The man chuckled. "Of course, you have to escape the cell to do so, which will not happen. As for the drugging, that was one my elite soldier's doing. However, the results were not what we expected."

"What do you mean?" I asked, although I already knew the answer would be a bad one. I knew to expect the worst.

"Well, my Itachi," the man replied, "the drug was supposed to transform you two into children to make you vulnerable, which was a success; however, your minds were supposed to be altered to the minds of that age as well. But as you can see, that didn't work. Then, there's the second part.."

"Well?! Spill it out?!" yelled Kisame.

"Aw, you sound so adorable with your high-pitched voices," the man chuckled. Kisame was already trying to break from his chains to grapple with the man who had just insulted the monster of the Mist. The man, however, continued,

"Don't bother with those chains. You don't have the power to do so, which I'll explain why. The second part was to lower your chakra levels so you wouldn't have as much energy as a kid. However, because of a screw-up in the drug, your chakra levels weren't lowered... they were wiped away clean."

"What?"

"What the crap is that supposed to mean?" Kisame was obviously getting more and more irritated with all the confusion.

"It means that all your abilities, all your power, your chakra, your jutsu, everything is gone."

…...

….

…

..

.

"WHAT?!" Kisame and I yelled at the same time. I'm usually a calm, emotionless man, but hearing this man say that everything we had that defined us as shinobi...was gone, that was infuriating. If all my abilities are gone..could that mean...

"My Sharingan. Is that gone too?"

"I'm afraid so," the man almost seemed sad, but we knew he was only pretending, "that's why my plans have been put to a halt."

"Your plans?"

"Mhm, why, Itachi, now I can't get those precious eyes of yours."

He was after my eyes? Well, I shouldn't be surprised; many people have tried to steal my sharingan, but all those attempts were in vain.

"If he doesn't have the eyes anymore," Kisame yelled, "why don't you just kill us?!"

"I didn't say this problem was permanent, lil' Kisame. In a matter of time, your abilities will come back; however, it will be too late for you two. Itachi, your sharingan will be mine, and once it is, I will then kill you both. I hope you can sleep tonight because you've only got a few nights left."

With that, the mysterious man departed with a loud laugh, leaving us shocked and speechless.

"So now what, Itachi?"

Kisame was laying back on the ground, looking like a child who had his lollipop taken away from him. Once again, I don't blame him; without our powers, skills, and even my sharingan, escape seemed almost like an impossible idea. However, escape was our only option; I could not allow my sharingan to be taken away and be used at this man's disposal.

"We think of a way to escape."

"How? We're 8 year old brats with no abilities at all. How do you expect us to escape under such humiliating circumstances?"

"We wait.."

**~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ End of Chapter 2 **

**SleepyCat: I enjoyed writing this chapter! Don't forget to review and favorite! **


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